A New Law Gives Hope to an Inmate on Death Row

When Iris Morgenstern, an English teacher, remembers her former student Robert Avila, she pictures the towering El Paso teen squeezing a tiny dropper of food into the mouth of a scrawny newborn kitten.

Robert is just a really gentle, kind soul,” she said.

That is why, more than a decade after he was convicted of stomping to death his girlfriend’s 19-month-old son in a fit of jealousy, she still cannot believe that he is facing execution. Now, after years of fighting to prove his innocence, Ms. Morgenstern and Mr. Avila’s legal team hope a new law will give the death row inmate a chance for a new trial and the opportunity to prove his innocence.

In the last legislative session, in the wake of dozens of exonerations in recent years based on advances in forensic science, Texas lawmakers approved Senate Bill 344. The first law of its kind in the nation, it allows courts to grant defendants new trials in cases in which forensic science has evolved. On Friday, Mr. Avila’s lawyers filed a motion under the new statute arguing that recent developments in biomechanical science that were unavailable at the time of their client’s 2001 trial indicate that Nicholas Macias’s death may have been the result of an accident.

But Jaime Esparza, the El Paso County district attorney, said he was not convinced that the jury’s verdict, based on scientific testimony and a signed confession, was wrong. On Wednesday, a judge will hear arguments from both sides as Mr. Avila’s lawyers seek the withdrawal of his January 2014 execution date to allow time for full consideration of his claims under the new law.

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Sources: The New York Times, The Texas Tribune, Sept. 8, 2013